I freely admit that tattooing is artistry and that it has a long and proud history, especially where it serves a cultural purpose or denotes military service. My dislike for tattoos focuses on their proliferation among civilians in the West, mainly because it signals a dying culture where everyone flails about for an identity and re-invents himself rather than passes on actual traditions.
First, tattooing has been robbed of its coolness. It once was a way to announce that you were rebellious, dangerous, or on the fringes of society; now it's just a fad shared by pasty corporate drones and prom queens, so there's nothing edgy about it anymore. If anything, getting a tattoo today reeks of conformity. Think of an underground, hardcore rock band that softens its image and waters down its lyrics to go mainstream, and you have the travesty of the modern tattoo.
Second, tattoos make women look trashy. Nature has produced few things more lovely than the female form, and overlaying nature's artistry with human scrawling is a sacrilege on par with putting a flame job on a Rolls Royce. If trashy is the look you want, though, more power to you.
Third, tattoos make men and women look ridiculous during old age. The elderly have a quiet and inherent dignity that a tattoo noisily conspires to defeat.
However, one thing I do like about tattoos is that by simply not getting one, I have become a non-conformist -- and it didn't cost me a dime.
First, tattooing has been robbed of its coolness. It once was a way to announce that you were rebellious, dangerous, or on the fringes of society; now it's just a fad shared by pasty corporate drones and prom queens, so there's nothing edgy about it anymore. If anything, getting a tattoo today reeks of conformity. Think of an underground, hardcore rock band that softens its image and waters down its lyrics to go mainstream, and you have the travesty of the modern tattoo.
Second, tattoos make women look trashy. Nature has produced few things more lovely than the female form, and overlaying nature's artistry with human scrawling is a sacrilege on par with putting a flame job on a Rolls Royce. If trashy is the look you want, though, more power to you.
Third, tattoos make men and women look ridiculous during old age. The elderly have a quiet and inherent dignity that a tattoo noisily conspires to defeat.
However, one thing I do like about tattoos is that by simply not getting one, I have become a non-conformist -- and it didn't cost me a dime.
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